For Auld Lang Syne?

Hogmanay – when we cast a backwards eye on past days, gripped by emotion, with gratitude and at times more than a few regrets. The words ‘if only’ feature often, usually surrounding cherished memories we yearn for the chance to recreate, just for moments, to take back some angry words or express the loving thoughts we conveyed all too rarely this side of that awful divide.

But it’s also the perfect opportunity to regard the blank canvas that is our future – time to consider the changes, transformations, renewals, plans, innovations, dreams we’ve ever had and wished might materialise.  And we resolve to plan with urgency remembering for a short time that tomorrow is promised to none of us. I say we ought all in Scotland to consider immediately what we need to do, soonest, to enable our country to recover and thrive. Because the future of Scotland, devolution and its gains, and the chance of her independence are all in jeopardy if we do not act. 

Politically, yet again, Scotland finds herself in a lucky position – one where we might say that 2014 was indeed a dress rehearsal but which taught us much; lessons learned for folk like me include that the official YES campaign was a bit too precious at times, slightly populated by folk with personal ambitions a little too uppermost, and the real graft tended to come from the grassroots who’ve never ceased to talk, campaign, persuade and hope. That’s the energy and spirit Scotland can capture now, without delay, to make 2022 the springboard to Independence.

Johnson is likely more of an object of hatred than even Thatcher – who saw that coming – and SNP MPs, and those of ALBA, mandated to seek Independence, represent practically every constituency of Scotland; Johnson is derided internationally, more of a putty or toffee boy than an IronMan; that lack of international standing, more accurately described as worldwide ridicule, dictates that now is the time for Scotland to strike, before Johnson is replaced by one with a little more credibility; that wouldn’t be hard, Dennis the Menace, Oor Wullie or Billy Bunter would be head and shoulders above.

Scotland cannot and should not wait for the Tory Government to regain some ground, or for some distant election with a very outside chance of producing a red or blue PM who’d nod to a section 30;  multiple mandates prove that the will of the people of Scotland is another shout at Independence. Why do we wait? Scotland’s people hunger, freeze, do without and die, while we wait, sidetracked and diverted by niche policies and issues of identity which embarrass, debase, divide and cost untold hidden amounts of effort and money.

There was a Referendum Bill drafted in March 2021, the SNP have an 11 point plan; if a section 30 is to be sought it should be requested now, today; and if refused then other action must be mounted so that the democratic will of the people of Scotland is respected and implemented. If the current occupants of those precious seats in Holyrood have not the inclination or the courage to move, and if those at Westminster continue to sit on their hands and bleat in the face of Tory and Labour ridicule, then they betray their raison d’etre and should step aside for those of us who want to get the job done. I have no desire to see a divided Independence movement and would prefer that May 2022 can and should see a national convention of all elected politicians enjoined required and authorised to seek our country’s Independence without delay.

‘We do not seek Independence as an end to itself, but as the means to change Scotland for the better’ – honest words to which the entire Scottish independence movement can rally.

Let us hope that come Hogmanay 2022 we all in Scotland look back on the year when our nation took its courage into both hands, united and regained our liberty – for the good of all in this lucky land.